Beginning of Reflection

The H20 project is an example of a piece of work I'm proud of. I think this is because we spent alot of time for this project getting critiques and doing drafts. I really like the photography that i took. I spent alot of time making two trips to the La Jolla Children's Pool and taking pictures. Applying photo shop to my pictures made them eye catching and something to be proud of during our exhibition.

How I accomplished my photography for this projects was by first taking a bunch of pictures then getting them all critiqued. Out of the 100 pictures i took i narrowed them down to 30, then picked 6 from those 30. After i had all my photography picked out for my photo essay i carefully photo shopped them and then i was done. Going through these step helped me accomplish the final product.

" Pup Season
The pup season is a very important season for the harbor seals to use the beach because they need a safe place to give birth. Harbor seals are land mammals and cannot always be in the water. “Hauling out” is the phrase locals’ use for this behavior. A volunteer from the organization, “La Jolla Friends of the Seals” explained how the seals get intimidated and scared easily and even the slightest scare can lead up to a premature birth. This season on November 21, 2008, the first premature pup was born and died not to long after. Pedestrians invading the seals’ territory and causing stress can lead to even more premature births."

This caption is also an example of a piece if work that I'm proud of. The highly polished piece of writing that i did made me feel like i did a really good job. By going through numerous drafts and critiques for this photo essay really payed off feeling good in the end.

How i accomplished this was by putting also of effort into my work but also being engaged and intreseted in it as well. To get to this final piece of writing i not only when through draft after draft but got different peers involved in critiqing my work also. I think this betters your writing becuase you are getting feedback from different perspectives which can only make it better.

Sea Shepherd

The author of Neptune's Navy has a great use of structure and evidence in this article about Paul Watson's wild crusades to save the oceans. He incorporates a majority of back round history, evidence, and a very strong hook that gets you going throughout the whole article.

Having strong back round history is a very strong tactic i can use from reading this story. Its always important to have history to pull from to get a better understanding of what your trying to get across become more understandable. For example he says "In 1946, the world's major whaling nations formed an international whaling commission to manage the world's whaling fisheries". With this said it was easier to understand what started these whaling crusades. This also falls into the evidence category.

Having strong evidence helps support your piece of writing and backs up your facts or opinions. I could maybe incorporate a little more evidence in my arguments and conflicts section just as the author does on page 3 paragraph 2. This makes your writing more well rounded and more clear adding great structure.

By starting off with a strong hook its easy to grab the readers attention. Having a strong introduction is something i like about this article. In my H2O project i have been focusing on my introduction and how to grab the readers attention. Neptune's Navy starts out by telling a story which i think is a very good idea. It gets the reader involved and "hooked" which is a very good literary technique to have.

In all i think this article is a good example for techniques of writing i may be able to incorporate in my own photo essay. Reading his good example gives me an idea of what to do with my own work that can only help me succeed in my writing.

He's Not Black

Marie Arana discusses in her Washington Post article, "Isn't it time for the language to move on?". In language she means why our society is so caught up with calling him black, or her white, just because of the color of peoples skin. I feel like we should "move on" and find a different way to alter our stereotypical language for race and not just label people by the way we see them.

As our first "black" president is elected many people see this as a change or taking a step forward into the future. Arana however, disagrees with the phrase "black" but interpreted it as "We are racially sophisticated enough to elect a non-white president, and we are so racially backward that we insist on calling him black. Progress has outpaced vocabulary." Sure its a change to not elected a "white" president but it is not and hasn't been a change to refer to all people with dark skin black.

I agree with her statement that "the categories must go" and we cant always label and be so stereotypical to what race people are. I know many people who have dark skin and would be labeled as black or African American but are actually half white or come from a European background. Obama for instance is 50% white Kansan and is labeled around the world as the U.S's first black president. I think there are other phrases out there like biracial which is a more appropriate use of terminology for this subject.

In all society needs to realize calling someone "black" or "white" isn't the socially correct way to define a race. The language does need to move on and our society needs to move along with it. Nothing should "still mired in the old south".

Thanksgiving

Im thankful for my house, friends and family.

I will accomplish finishing up taking all the pictures i need for my photo essay, write the rough drafts for slides 4 to 8 (or 9), and revise and rewrite my slides 1 to 4.

Protect Our Seals

I'm discovering so far that i have a pretty good understanding of what i need to do and what needs to get done for this project. With writing my story board and planning sheet it became easier to see where i was and what exactly needed to get done. 

Something that surprises me is how before i had done any of the planning sheet and story board i felt over whelmed and was very confused but by just doing those simple things now i know where i am in the process of completing this project. 

My next steps are to go to the cove tomorrow and get my photography section done and interview the locals, lifeguards and tourists. As soon as i get those bunches of information i can start revising and piecing together my rough draft for my photo essay. 

Blog #20

H2O Project

research question: What effects do people have on the harbor seals in La Jolla Cove?

My product will consist of a photo essay with high quality photography of the seals themselves and their enviorment. I will have 10 to 12 different pictures that will be edited in photo shop in Margaret's class. Under each picture there will be either a quote or fact about what my research question asks. The quotes i receive from this will be from an interview with the Friends of Our Seals organization. I will also be surveying tourists and shop owners about their opinion about the people of La Jolla and the seals enviorment.

Another product i could produce for this project would be a documentary. I would already be surveying and interviewing people so it wouldn't take much to pile everything together. The only down side of this is i not the most skill video editor and i would probley run into many problems along the way.

Blog #19

An Eternal Revolution

By ORLANDO PATTERSON
Published: November 7, 2008

In this editorial the author describes "the epochal shift in the voting behavior of women who, for the first time since enfranchisement, voted in greater numbers, and more progressively, than men." Through this 2008 election women voted by a 13 percent margin in Barrack Obama's favor. This impacted the election greatly. Hilary Clinton's campain impacted america greatly also with having a woman even run for president. Back then neither woman, Afican Americans, or young people were allowed to vote, running for president being out of the question, but this election and Barrack Obama's presidency has opened the doors historically and revolutionary.

Hey, Democrats: Thank the Women

Election & H20 Project

Election Reflection

I feel really good about the election because the candidate who i wanted to win won. I am convinced that he will bring change to our country. I hope that we will be bale to get out of the financial crisis we are in and be able to have a more stable economy. I also hope Barrack Obama ends the war in Iraq and helps bring our troops home safely. I am concerned with the tax increase that will be happening for the middle class because that's the class that my family is in. I'm also concerned about how having an African American president will effect allot of the racial groups.

I would say i have only a little civic knowledge about whats going on in current events. Doing blogs and researching current events has really helped me better understand them. The discussions we have in class also help me get a deeper understanding on what goes on in the world. By continuing these discussions will continue to help me get a better grasp on today's current events. Talking to my family and friends about this current election i feel like i knew allot about them and could make my own opinions and be able to support why i felt that way.

H20 Project

* what effects do people have on the seals enviorment in La Jolla Cove?

Resources Needed:

-Camera for photo essay(10-12 high quality picture

-Interview questions for Friends of Seals, tourists, and cave store

-Survey?

-Car for transportation

People Needed:

-Cave store employees/shops near by

-Cove lifeguards

-Friends of our seals(interview)

-Tourists

Schedule:

-Nov. 6, list of people done post on blog

-Nov.7, revise with Randy and or classmates

-Nov, 17-21 edit photo essay in Margret's class

Research Questions

State of the Beach H2O Project

1.How bacteria effects our local surfers?

Bacteria effects our surfers in many ways. The most common effect for bacteria is rain. This is because after it rains the pollution that is in the water drains gets washed in the ocean. The bacteria can pose threats for ear infections, sore throats, and other viral infections. Daniel Braff a Carlsbad surfer claims he is suing government officials for the potential deadly brain infection because he was exposed to sewage while surfing. "This infection has cost him more than $500,000 in medical expenses and has affected his speech, motor skills and forced him to use a wheelchair" says his attorney Randall Winet. This brings up the question if this happens to regular surfers like us, what could happen in the long run when our bacteria levels get brought up? Are locals at risks for infections that are unknown?

Sea Pollution

Three Months of Stink

Storm Drains Pose San Diego Health Risk

Sick Surfer Sues over Dirty Water

2.What effect does the beach pollution have on us and marine life in San Diego?

Beach pollution can come in different forms to effect the us and marine life we have today. There are trash like, plastic, cigarette butts, and beer bottles, but what really can effect the marine life is toxic water or water pollution. Toxic waste is the most harmful form of pollution to sea life and humans. When bacteria gets into the water our fish take that in. When our fisherman catch that fish we are the ones to eat it. It goes the same with the marine life food chain. The plastic litter substances that are dispersed out into our beach suffocates many birds and other animal life. If we all did our part to help with pollution would it make a significant change? and in what ways could we do that?

Lessons learned in South Pacific

Ocean Pollution

Regulatory Gap Stifles Pollution Control

Toxic Beach Pollution on the Border and in South San Diego

ACORN and Voting Suppression

October 6, 2008, 3:58 pm
The Election Dirty Tricks Have Begun
By The Editorial Board

ACORN is a non profit organization which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which is now under investigation by state and federal authorities . The problem with this activist group is that the republican party is accusing them for registration fraud like setting up fake ballots which fake people like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. Its not entirely ACORN's fault like they are making it seem like. ACORN is only allowed to give their ballots to the voting representatives and its up them to then catch all the voting frauds that come through. It illegal for ACORN to throw out or not accept all the ballots that are given to them even if they are fake or not, the only thing they can do is let the voting representatives know that a stack of ballots looks suspicious and then have them take it over from there.

Voting Suppression is when people try to restrict your ability to vote. They may do this by sending false letters or phone calls to your house. The Philadelphia Daily reported "an anonymous flier has shown up in African-American neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia saying (falsely, of course) that voters who face outstanding arrest warrants or have unpaid traffic tickets could be arrested if they go to the polls." These people think that if they give out false information to people it will restrict them from voting. Sadly, alot of people do fall for this and end up not voting.

I think the real problem is the voting suppression. ACORN doesn't have a choice to not except fraud ballots but people get away with voting suppression all the time. Voting suppression is more of the scandal out of the two too. Alot of the media (and John McCain) makes a big deal out of ACORN when its only a little problem and not entirely their fault.



Acorn Fights Back
The Board
The Acorn Story
The Real Issue
FOX NEWS

Comparing our Debates

Our debates are compared into historical context by the two candidates wanting to make change in society and by how debates were ran. Comparing our 2008 presidential debates to back then's Lincoln Douglas debates, they were the same and different in many ways. Douglas would say "whatever you want, gentlemen, that's what I'm here for". This sounds relatively similar to something i would hear come out of John McCain's mouth. By convincing the audiences for change or "what ever they would like" would catch the eye of most voters. Back then debates were also ran differently. During the Lincoln Douglas debates they were given over an hour for one topic unlike our 90 seconds we have today. I couldn't imagine having a 3 hour presidential debate.

Debate #3 Reflection

“I think everybody understands at this point that we are experiencing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. And the financial rescue plan that Senator McCain and I supported is an important first step. And I pushed for some core principles: making sure that taxpayer can get their money back if they're putting money up. Making sure that CEOs are not enriching themselves through this process.“ –Barrack Obama

I think this part in the transcript describes our discussions about our financial crisis we are in on Wall Street. In class one of our assignments we had to write about in our blog was advice to the federal government for Wall Street. I had said that the government should give them loans and then when they get it back together and things are back to normal, they can pay it back. That’s what sort of took place with the bail out plan.

The media is all about the polls, who’s winning, and little comments from the candidates. In this article I read, it talks about how John McCain says in the debate number 3 “I love being the underdog”. He also said according to CNN, “You know, every time that I've gotten ahead, somehow I've messed it up." This goes to show that the media picks out the littlest things either one of the candidates says so they can try and draw the line between who’s winning, and truly wants it, and who doesn’t.

The World Wide Web

I think that Internet effects democracy by putting many different opinions out there for people to see. The Internet always doesn't say things that are true which differs peoples opinions for example what should take place in the government. Like today's election, there are like 50000 articles and blog entry's that discuss what is going on between the two candidates, picking sides for each. Over all the Internet is like a big information center where if you want to find something out just search for it and you'll find it. Most all people access Internet so i think that it would have something to do with basing peoples opinions from what they perceive online.

Reflection Of Newspaper

Some things I liked about contributing to the group was with finding the picture with the caption, helping revising headlines, and trying to give ideas for the newspaper. I had found a picture that no one else really had that portrayed the articles really well. No one else really seemed to be finding pictures with captions so I took on the job of doing so. I also liked how I helped the group revise their headlines when we needed to put an “action verb” into it. My other group members were having trouble so I helped them find new ways to reword their headlines and sub headlines to add the action verb into it. I thought our headlines turned out pretty nice and were eye catching for the reader to read.

I contributed to the group by giving ideas for revising our final product. Also like I said before I helped the group with revising the headlines and finding the pictures with captions. If we were to do this project again I would like for maybe my group members to corporate and for me not be ignored all the time. I truly believe our final product could have been better if our group wasn’t so resistant to revision, let alone everything else I had to say. It’s unfortunate to see that this turned out this way but it’s only a learning experience that we can only improve upon.

I honestly don’t think we used our resources very well. We could have done a lot more to our final product by like I said by revising, maybe printing proofs and getting critiques and revising, and putting some structure in the layout. I also think by having more people in the group learn how to design the newspaper might be a little more helpful then just relying on one person to make everything. It seemed like our group just used the resources that were handed to us but didn’t go out of our way to exceed to our fullest. Next time I think we should come up with a plan for what to get done everyday and be a little bit more organized all together.

Photography at its Finest

Rule of Thirds

This picture has a good rule of thirds because the picture is overall proportional and it forces you to look over the entire photograph.

— Penny Adams, Photo Editor on Monday, September 17, 2007


Depth of Field

This picture portrays a great depth of field because the main focus point is the point that has the most focus. The rest of the picture is blurred so it forces you to look at what is more focused.

Damien Franco on Monday, June 16th 2008




Eyes, Color Fill the Frame

This is a good example of filling the frame because the head shot takes up the whole picture. Also the eyes are a little off to the left and a pale shade of blue making it so when you first look at the picture your eyes go there.

Stephanie colvard ~ college student / Beauty contestant




Interesting Use of Light

I think this photography has an interesting use of light because the shadows casting through the fence makes sort of a cool effect on the sidewalk.

Jocelyn K. Arizona, USA






Eye Level

I thought this was an good use of eye level because the perspective is from where a human would be making it easier to look at.

-MudRanch Photography


Macro Photography

This picture has a great use of Macro photography because its really focused and is high quality. You can almost see every detail which makes it more realistic.

-Graham Owen


FreeBee

I like this picture because it seems to have a cool structured look to it. I also like how all the colors conjoin together which makes it really eye catching.

Debates Past and Present

Lincoln Douglas Debate #7


My Licoln Douglous presidential debate was the 7th one in Alton Illinosis. My topic was on equality of black and whites. Douglas taking the stand argued that each state should determine whether individuals could legally own slaves within its jurisdiction.

“Divided into free and slave states as our fathers made it- each state having the right to prohibit, abolish or sustain slavery as it pleases."Douglas called the states right to determine its own laws “equality among all the states” the crowds eyed Douglas as his reasoning with regard to slavery was straight forward.

Lincolns argued slavery as “immoral” regardless of how many people supported it. The constitution was on his side supporting that “ all men were created equally” realizing that people were to afraid to speak out Lincoln tried to connect to the people during the debate. This debate really opened peoples mind into the two opposing sides of slavery.

2008 Presidential Debate

I think that overall Obama won the debates because he was confident and backed up everything with evidence. It looked at though he was comfortable to take on any question or attack that was thrown to him and that’s what our country needs.

John McCain looked nervous alot at some points unlike Barrack Obama who answered the questions confidently and knowingly. The second debate revealed between the two candidates who could take pressure from people asking questions and who seemed uneasy.

I truelly think John McCain is basically full of crap. After following these two candidates and listening to what they have to say, I don’t agree with John McCain. He seems like he would make the same mistakes Bush did. What we really need is change.

Connecting our Demographics

Clinton-Obama Quandary for Many Black Women

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: October 14, 2007

In this article an African American women named Clara Vereen expresses her opinion about a black candidate running for president. “I’ve got enough black in me to want somebody black to be our president” she said. She also describes how she is concerned of Barrack Obama safely if he is elected for president. The article says how black women are a "crucial constituency" in South Carolina because half of the state’s democratic primary voters were black.

In my last blog i talk about how in a lot of the southern states most of the population is African American. Wouldn't you think that Barrack Obama has more of an advantage in these parts of the country? I also talked about how these statistics got to be that way. My opinion was that it was because of where they originated from.

Personally i think these southern states have somewhat to do with voting for Barrack Obama becuase of his race. It is said that Obama targeted alot of his campain in these areas for a reason. If most of the southern states have accoiation with Obama then would it make sense for the eastern states to go up for Mc Caine?

Scattering the States

Demographics Set and Stone?
Why Dont Americans' "Scatter the States"?


Why do states where certain races originate from make up a large percentage of that race? The American Fact Finder proves that most African Americans originate from the south (e.g. Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia), still live there today. This doesn’t mean that all African Americans live in the south east but that’s where in one of those singles states alone 26.3 to 55.4 % of them live. The same goes with the White race, 94 to 96% of people who live in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and West Virginia are white.

If after the civil war when all people had the right to live wherever they wanted why didn’t they want to move to a different part of the country? This makes me wonder why they chose to make this decision.I think this goes back to where races orignated from.

The statistics show that in the eastern states where most of the white people came from still have a large percentage in those states along with some random middle, eastern, and western states as well. The same goes with the Asians that originated more from the west and the African Americans coming from the south.

This entire pattern in demographics makes me wonder if over time the percentages will ever be broken up. It also interests me how the education system isn’t the same in all of the states. The south has one of the poorest education system compared to the east and west coast. In 2006 in almost all of the southern states, only 66% percent were people who were 25 years and over completed high school. That’s more then half of the entire state its self.

Sen. Eric Johnson is still trying to push school vouchers on the residents of Georgia. He states that vouchers "should be paying more attention to improving the public school system in Georgia instead of trying to put a Band-Aid on the problem." I wonder if in the future, future presidents will make a change in the education system through out the Untied States. Maybe we might see some of those percentages go down like all the rest. Overall the whole concept of where states are located and who orientated from there is a mystery that will only reveal itself over time.

-"United States - Race and Ethnicity - American FactFinder." American FactFinder. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFPeople?_submenuId=people_10&_sse=on (accessed Oct. 2, 2008).
-Lakly, Donna Lee . "School vouchers: Plan does not address the deep problems with public education in Georgia ajc.com." Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News ajc.com. http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/09/29/laklyed.html (accessed Oct. 2, 2008).

Marbury vs. Madison

Marbury v. Madison v. Ashcroft

By ANTHONY LEWIS
Published: February 24, 2003

This article explains how after 200 years Americans are so used to judges having the last word that alternatives seem out of the question. It describes how we rely on the courts to enforce what the Constitution promises us. Anthony Lewis talks about how during World War II a security threat was admitted to the government and supreme courts and was denied. He also talks about how "The war on terrorism is an especially dangerous occasion for judges to close their eyes to violations of our rights."

The Marbury vs. Madison case is a landmark case in the U.S law. The case was between William Marbury v. James Madison. In 1800, John Adams was President and there was an election that year. Thomas Jefferson, who belonged to another political party, got elected. There were many positions in the government that were still empty. President Adams appointed 58 new people to office and James Madison, the Secretary of State, was asked to deliver paperwork to these new people so they could start there jobs but Thomas Jefferson told Madison not to deliver the papers to some of the people Adams had appointed and William Marbury was one of them. He then sued James Madison and tried to get the Supreme Court to issue a "writ of mandamus" which his case was then denied.

I personally think that the supreme court shouldn't reject peoples cases if its for a right reason. After this case I and allot of other people probably wonder if the supreme court can just reject cases, what will happen if they reject important cases that involve economical emergencies? like with current wars? That could stir up problems that will only make us go down hill from there on.

Blog Reflectionnn

1. What are you most proud of on your blog? Why?
The one thing that I'm most proud of would be my design on my blog. At first i just had a pink cheesy layout that didn't look professional at all and wasn't very interesting to look at. I then decided that if people were going to view my blog I'd want it to look a little more professional and eye catching. As soon as i made the changes of renaming my headline, adding pictures and videos, and changing the layout my blog looked allot better. I'm proud of this because I'm not very good at graphic design but in this project i really pulled through and ended up with a nice looking blog i became proud of.

2. What would you like to improve on your blog? Why? How?

Some areas i feel i could improve on is getting interesting articles that hook people in easily. The current event articles i had used were semi interesting but i think i could have done better. An example of someone in our class that had really interesting articles was Amanda. I'm not quite sure where to get stories on a guy who eats a bunch of Big Mac everyday but i could have spent more time on finding articles that catch peoples eye and are more interesting. Maybe next time i could ask my classmates where they got their current events from so i could try the websites they used if i liked their stories.

4. How has blogging impacted your understanding of the US? the Media? Current Events? "Old" news (like the Constitution, Federalist Papers, etc.)?

Blogging has impacted my understanding of the U.S from me connecting current day world issues or topics and relating them to "Old News" or my personal opinions. Before this project i didn't know much that was happening around the world. I was never interested in the stock market for example but doing these blogs and reading articles about it got me interested because i have stocks of my own and i could connect what i learned through the blogs to personal matters. I feel like i know more about the presidential election then i had before and my knowledge of the U.S and today's current events has grown. Through these blogs i was able to summarize articles for a better understanding of the, make a class connection, and state my personal opinions and ask questions. All these things have helped me better my understanding of the U.S, media, and today's old and new news that will only continue me to have better learning experience.

Schools and Money Trees

On Obama: Why the Democratic Candidate Is Wrong to Blindly Throw Money Into Schools

Edited on Semptember 25, 2008 8:22 PM

By Lance T. Izumi
September 18, 2008

Barrack Obama recently released an ad attacking John McCain. The ad clearly said that the republican candidate (John McCain) would give “$200 billion more to special interests while taking money away from public schools.” Barrack Obama's education proposal said that $19 billion dollars would annually increase funding for charter schools and classroom technology. Clearly these two were attacking each other for spending more money on school technology and new charter schools.

Our class connection to this topic would be that we have been discussing these candidates and its really interesting how our school kind of relates to what they are attacking each other about. They are both basically saying that they want different schools so that kids can learn in a way that teaches them better by buying technology to do so. In the opposing case, given the numerous studies and reports over the years, giving 200 billions dollars is a risky task to do to somehow " lift up the sinking ship of public education".

Personally when i look at these billions of dollars being handed over to improve technology and uplift charter schools i don't think over doing the money is the best idea. The whole point of charter schools are to be different from the public school system and by just putting money in public schools to get new technology isn't going work. If they wanted to make public schools more like charter schools why don't they just change the curriculum in learning from the public schools to the public charter and use project based learning like we do? If hands on learning if what they are trying to get through to, do u really need 200 billion dollars to do so?

Advice to the Federal Government

Wall St. in Worst Loss Since ’01 Despite Reassurances by Bush

By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: September 15, 2008

On Monday morning the stock market crashed. The Dow Jones industrial average had dropped 504.48 points. The Lehem Brothers were about to go bankrupt and Merrill Lynch basically failed and was bought out by Bank of America. It was the biggest decline since Sept. 17, 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “I know Americans are concerned about the adjustments that are taking place in our financial markets,”- George Bush

Our class connection would be that we studied federalist and anti federalist and what ended up happening to fix the situation was a federalist act. The federalist believed in government should take control, basically a strong government. What ended up happening to help save the companies from failing was the government stepped in a lended them money to help get back on track again or it would effect the economy.

In our class discussion i thought that the government should only help certain companies like bank and other important companies that really fuel the economy. My opinion was that the government should give them loans and then they get it back together and things are back to normal, they can pay it back. With lending them the loan they should only allow them to make safer decisions so something like this wouldn't happen again.

One Inspiring Icon

Beezie Madden - Show Jumping Gold Medal Olympian




This article is about my American icon Beezy Madden. Bezzy Madden is on the U.S Olympic show jumping team and has competed in Athens and Beijing. In 1989, she was named the United States Olympic Committee's (USOC) Female Equestrian Athlete of the Year. She was the first woman to pass the million dollar mark in show jumping earnings.

The class connects to this because i think that this project was the most interesting thing we studied all year. Our project consisted of a self portrait and an artist statement. After we all hung our pictures and writing pieces in the commons to display for open house.

I picked this to be the most interesting thing all year because i liked how we tied photography into it. Photography is one of my hobbies that i enjoy doing so that's what made this project really enjoyable.

Federalists or Not

Obama Pledges to Fix No Child Left Behind

by FOXNews.com

Tuesday, September 9, 200

Obama says he is going to fix the "No Child Left Behind Act". He said that if he is elected President, he will provide parents with more schools to which they can "send their children and design merit-based pay plans for teachers, a program reviled by unions but supported by Republican and some Democratic lawmakers."

The class connection is that we studied the Federalist and Anti-Federalists and the "No Child Left Behind Act" has alot to do with that. So by Obama being elected president and making change to this act, wouldn't the government be strong in this case and be taking over a problem? Wouldn't Obama be supporting the Federalists?

I think it would. The Federalists were a group of people who believed in a strong government. I think strong governments take charge in certain situations if there is a problem, or something needs to be changed. In this case its only for the better.

Bush vs. Thomas Paine

Woodward: Bush 'too often failed to lead' on Iraq, troop surge only 1 factor in violence drop


By Associated Press
9:54 PM CDT, September 4, 2008

The overall summary of a news article about a new book that came out which talks about why Bush isn't handing the war in Iraq very properly. They say that he is slow to react to the escalating violence in the country, But they say once Bush decided that thousands of additional troops were needed, he moved with focus and determination even though top military advisers resisted him.

The class connection to this article would be that the enlightenment has something to do with the "War on Terrorism". When 9/11 hit the u.s went into shock and what the government came up with was a war. Thomas Hobbes thought that people should rely on their strengths to protect their personal life, liberty, and property, so wouldn't going into Iraq to stir up violence or using "strength" be Thomas Hobbes philosophy?

My personal connection would be that we hear about the war all the time. In this years 2008 elections the presidential candidates want to do something different about this war and it relates back to us because our parents vote for them. Is Thomas Hobbes philosophy really the right way to handle things?

Are you Pursuing your Happiness?

U.S. Motorists Drove 4.7% Fewer Miles in June

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 13, 2008

During this summer vacation when people are supposed to be going on vacation, 12.2 billion people drove fewer miles in June than in the same month a year ago. More people are staying close to home because of how high gas prices are. Gas consummation is down too so that's not making things any better.

This connects with the class because every one's families buy gas and its an ongoing problem that we want to get fixed. Gas prices are too high and something needs to change.

Personally i think this connects to the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness from the declaration of independence because if the government is about those things, wouldn't a pursuit of happiness be to try and find a better way to lower gas prices so everyone is happy?